1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the following disclosure relate to a print control terminal device, an image forming apparatus, a print control method, and an image forming method, and more particularly, to a print control terminal device, an image forming apparatus, a print control method, and an image forming method which can easily determine whether a document or print data includes any transparency object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses are devices for printing print data generated by terminal devices, such as, computers or the like, on recording paper. Examples of the image forming apparatuses include a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, a multi-functional peripheral (MFP) device, and the like.
Users may apply various effects to documents by using various application programs. A transparency function, which is one of the various effects, is widely used for its benefits in decorating documents. However, documents with transparency may often not be printed as clearly as they appear on the screen.
More specifically, a transparency pattern may be used to apply transparency to a document. However, in a case in which different transparency patterns are applied to objects having the same transparency level, a color aberration may occur, as shown in FIG. 6.
To prevent the occurrence of a color aberration in connection with the application of a transparency pattern, a transparency pattern may be magnified by a predetermined transparency multiple number. However, a particular combination of a transparency multiple number and a half-toning screen may cause degradation in picture quality, and this problem is further described with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B.
FIG. 7A is a diagram showing an example of a printed document obtained by applying a transparency level of 50% and a transparency multiple number of (1*1), and FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an example of a printed document obtained by applying a transparency level of 50% and a transparency multiple number of (4*4).
Referring to FIGS. 7A and 7B, the less the transparency multiple number, the more likely a color aberration is to occur. Alternatively, the greater the transparency multiple number, the more likely a degradation in picture quality, such as, unwanted stripes is to occur.
To prevent any degradation in picture quality that may result from the application of transparency, various algorithms have been suggested. These algorithms, however, are often difficult to be applied to an actual printing process because it is generally difficult to determine transparency during a printing process. Accordingly, these algorithms may be executed only by a user setting.
More specifically, in an environment where a device driver interface (DDI) command is transmitted from a Graphics Device Interface (GDI) of a Microsoft Operating System (OS) to a printer driver, as illustrated in FIG. 16, no transparency attributes are defined for objects that are transmitted.
For example, to define transparency by using Printer Command Language (PCL) 6, which is one of the most widely used printer languages, several rendering commands may be required. Since these rendering commands may also be used for various purposes other than transparency, transparency may be configured to be realized on a final output image in response to a particular combination of these rendering commands. Accordingly, it is difficult to determine whether transparency is set in print data during a printing process.